Title: Investigating the effect of brand identity and character on brand loyalty of football team fans

Authors: Mohammad Keshtidar; MohammadAli Sahebkaran; Mahdi Talebpour; Maziyar Kalashi

Addresses: Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Azadi Square, Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran ' Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Azadi Square, Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran ' Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Azadi Square, Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran ' Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Razi University, University Street, Taq Bostan, Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of brand identity and character on brand loyalty between Esteghlal and Persepolis team fans in Mazandaran province. This study was carried out using a descriptive correlation approach. The participants of this study consisted of 385 fans in a randomised cluster, at three geographical areas namely; west, central and east provinces. The participants answered questioners on brand identity and also a customer loyalty questionnaire. To perform descriptive statistics, the software package of spss21 was utilised and in order to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) Amos21 was utilised. The results showed that brand personality with impact factor of 0.56 (t = 4.76) has greater relations with brand loyalty, than brand identity by the impact factor of 0.28 (t = 2.28), in the view point of fans.

Keywords: brand personality; brand identity; brand loyalty; fans.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2018.091344

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2018 Vol.18 No.1/2, pp.105 - 115

Received: 17 Feb 2017
Accepted: 17 Oct 2017
Published online: 25 Apr 2018 *

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